About

Ivo Vegter

Ivo Vegter is a South African columnist who usually writes for ITWeb and The Daily Maverick. His background is in technology and telecommunications, but he has been caught writing about all sorts of unrelated subjects, from free-market economics to beef, from tanzanite stones to why climate change is not a crisis, from African royalty to forest fires. An honourary member of the Mitchell’s Brewery in Knysna, he is a grave threat to old-growth forests, cyclists, endangered seahorses and himself.

The travel expenses to attend SxSW are kindly sponsored by Old Mutual, in the interest of promoting quality coverage of the event back in South Africa. However, the sponsor exercises no editorial control over any of the content on this blog. All content posted here is either written or edited by Ivo, and the sponsor bears no responsibility for any of the opinions (or indeed errors) that may appear here.

The official Twitter account for the trip is @sxswsa. You can also follow @IvoVegter. If you’re a South African tweeting about SxSW, the #sxswsa hashtag may prove useful.

Ivo can be contacted on his Gmail account. The address is ivovegter. If this doesn’t make sense to you, we’ll assume you’re a spam robot. (Hi. Go away.)

Catherine Lückhoff

New technologies demand new businesses, which is why Catherine Lückhoff founded MANGO-OMC. Six years ago, she saw that there was a gap for credible and inspired online PR, with very few agencies willing or able to embrace the opportunities of the relatively new medium.

Catherine specialises in public relations, media relations, branding and communications campaigns that are truly integrated into the online and mobile space. Taking tried and tested methods, adding new ways of reaching an audience, and unconventional concepts, Catherine creates exceptional strategies to meet defined business communication and publicity requirements.

Her constant search to perfect the new has led to Catherine being included in the Mail & Guardian’s prestigious “200 Young South Africans” publication, and to being featured in the Topco Top Women in Business and Government 2010 edition.

She has worked on innovative campaigns for, amongst others, Rocking the Daisies Music Festival; Red Bull South Africa; Red Bull MOBILE, DStv Online (including DStv.com, SuperSport.com, MNet.co.za, VUZU.tv and TheAfricanFilmLibrary.com); kykNET; MK; Woolworths Financial Services; Aardklop National Arts festival; 24.com and The SpaceStation.

When not engrossed in the world of social media, Catherine can be found on an airplane, or in a restaurant sharing good food with good friends. Mountain biking, reading, spending time with family or simply catching up on sleep, are also top of her priority list.

Contact Catherine on cath@cluckhoff.com. Catherine blogs at www.cluckhoff.com > > and can be found on Twitter – @Cluckhoff.

Gabrielle Rosario

Gabrielle Rosario is Lead Strategist: SxD, Social Interaction Design at Native. Her role is to ensure that all strategy created for brands in the digital age is infused with social thinking. This translates into understanding human behaviour, group dynamics and approaches to technology that will inform interface design. Gaby has navigated her career by choosing positions that would align her to her goal of being a specialist in her field. Her BA in psychology and Post Graduate Diploma in marketing management created the foundation for her to pursue marketing roles in aviation, alcohol and publishing environments. Her position as assistant publisher for a South African women’s title gave her insight into the world of content and that married with her passion for the digital space. Gaby was in her first chat-room in 1994 and has schooled herself on all things online. Gaby continues her studies toward her Masters in Human Computer Interaction. Gaby moved to Brandsh in 2009 and is now part of the newly merged Native group. Passionate and supportive of the start-up environment and culture in South Africa, Gaby writes occasionally on technology & reports at related events.